The College of Law Practice Management‘s 5th Annual InnovAction Awards are open for business! The Awards, which recognize outstanding and original innovation by a law firm, law department or legal services provider anywhere in the world, are accepting entries until June 1, 2010, so there’s still time for you or your organization to submit a nomination.

The InnovAction Awards, which have been given to small firms, global giants and non-firm entities in five countries on four continents, can cover everything from legal service delivery to legal marketing, from technological systems to client communication, and from law firm management to . . . [more]

I understand that the Ethics Committee of the Benchers of the Law Society of BC are meeting today and are considering whether it is ethical for a lawyer to draft a will for a client whom he or she has never met in person.

This question is interesting to me because Heritage Law currently offers simple estate planning services to clients entirely over the internet through a secure online portal on our firm web site. We received approval to do so from the Law Society of BC in January.

In the interest of hopefully avoiding a precedent such as the . . . [more]

Like most office workers, lawyers and their support staff are increasingly struggling with information overload. Lawyering often requires deep thinking, thorough research and precise drafting, among other tasks. This time intensive work can easily get high jacked with constant distractions such as email, internet browsing, blog feeds, instant messaging, snail mail, meetings, phone calls and “twittering”.

The amount of information we receive on a daily basis has grown dramatically, but the amount of control we have over that information seems to have decreased exponentially. The Pomodoro Technique may be a good filter from internal and external distractions to keep you . . . [more]

Colleague and fellow blogger Patrick DiDomenico has started a blog called iPad4Legal that is further whetting my appetite for an iPad. He describes his new blog in these terms:

iPad4Legal is a blog about iPads as they pertain to lawyers, law firms, and the legal profession. We may occasionally stray and discuss iPhones or other Apple products since the technologies often overlap.

Another colleague described iPad as good for content consumers (which I am) but perhaps less so for content creators (which would be perhaps disappointing but something I suspect Apple would improve upon). The obvious interest will be in . . . [more]

A couple of waves aligned in my universe today:

• I followed a link to “Watching the Digital Detectives: The Arrival of Next-Generation Legal Skills” written for the ABA Law Practice Today by Ernie Svenson of Ernie The Attorney
• The Alberta Government introduced Bill 16 Traffic Safety (Distracted Driving) Amendment Act, 2010

Ernie’s article (I will address him by first name since frequently reading his good stuff makes me feel like we are close friends) mentioned his experience with a class of law students he was presenting information to:

Almost all of them had a laptop in front of

There’s been a good deal of hoopla about project management and the legal profession lately. I banged the drum last November and we’ve had a Slaw book review about project management by Andrew Terrett and another on work procedures by John Gilles. Canadian Lawyer Magazine recently validated our Slawyerly interest in the way we work by deeming project management a “buzz” for 2010. In contrast to my market-related argument from last November, I write this post to make the simple point that the discovery-related amendments to the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure are a practice-related reason to engage in . . . [more]

It’s easy to forget that the first and often the last interaction most of us have each day with our legal technology involves logging into – or out of – our trusty desktop machine. And that makes a lot of sense, because it’s typically the nexus of practically all that we do each day, from e-mail to web research to practice management and beyond. And yet the legal technology press is abuzz about how to ‘get into the cloud’ or ‘the perils of entering the cloud’ or the latest SaaS application that enables practice management for the price of a . . . [more]

About 600 legal aid certificates are typically given out a year for civil cases in Ontario, a practice that appears to have ended.

The Toronto Star reports that starting April 1 coverage was eliminated for a number of claims including, “lawsuits seeking damages for abuse, claims for reinstatement of disability insurance, malicious prosecution, assault or wrongful detention, mortgage actions and personal injury claims…”

Kristian Justesen, a spokesperson for Legal Aid Ontario, has indicated that contingency fee arrangements in the province allow lawyers to take on these cases as an alternative to legal aid, and that funding was often . . . [more]

Our friends over at Stem Legal have rolled out a new Media Strategy service for law firms. The aim is to develop with the client “a customized strategic plan for using the media (including social media) as a business development tool.” What makes this particularly interesting is that it’s headed up by the estimable Jordan Furlong. I can easily imagine how relieved some firms will be to have Jordan guide them through the fun-house halls of Twitter, Facebook, and the rest. I wish Stem every success in this venture.

[Disclosure: Stem Legal’s principal is Steve Matthews, who is a . . . [more]

I just finished reading the Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, which is written as a “leadership fable” – a story of a struggling technology start up company.

The central premise of the book is that creating a strong team is one of the few remaining competitive advantages available to organizations. Functional teams make better decisions and accomplish more in less time. Talented people are less likely to leave organizations where they are part of a cohesive team.

Politics is defined as when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather . . . [more]

I have to admit, when I started a recent series of trips to make presentations in the U.S. and Canada, I’d been questioning whether my recent assessments of and predictions for the legal profession had maybe become too radical. Having now returned from speaking with and listening to some of the sharpest and most engaged minds in the business, I’m coming to think I haven’t been radical enough.

Certainly, there was encouraging news. Delivering serious and perhaps discomfiting messages to state bar leaders in Chicago and law society executives in Toronto, I was heartened by the openness to these ideas . . . [more]

It was great to be quoted on the benefits for law firms of having a business plan in the April 2, 2010 Lawyers Weekly

There is great advice in this article. Unfortunately, it fails to mention that practicePRO also provides lawyers a sample law firm business plan (in Word) and a law firm budget template (an Excel spreadsheet). PDFs of both documents are also available, and all can be found on our Precedent Documents and Retainers page.

New and established lawyers alike can use these documents to plan for a more successful future.

Cross posted on Avoid A . . . [more]